My heart does bleed for what I lost,My love I cannot hide, You gave me to another, Yet I will love you til I die.

I wrote to O's previous owner and told her I did not think it a good idea to visit...there is a special bond between them and it is cruel to leave O over and over again...I cited the poem, and that passage in particular, in support of my reasoning...

It pains me every time I read it and feel so guilty to be lookign to re-home O again, although I do believe it is in his best interests to find him a home in which he can be happy...

If screaming is an indication that his needs are not being met than he is miserable here...we butt heads a lot due to my need to control his environment...

Greg, he is screaming because you have reinforced it. OK, let me see if I can explain how it happened. Now I need you to bear with me and use your imagination, OK.

We have 2 different scenarios. Water is a primary reinforcer or a need. We need it to live as is food.

Now we all know that you can go much longer without food than you can water.

You've been stuck in the Kalihari for 3 days without water. I happen to find you and guess what, I have water. Now you ask me for some water and I refuse and turn my back on you. What is going to happen next?

Now Greg, we all know that 3 days in the Kalihari without water and you wouldn't be able to speak, you'd be so dried out but if you could.

If I gave you water right away because you nicely asked for it, that would be it. You would continue to ask for water. In order to get the water you must ask nicely.

But if I refused to give you water, what do you think would happen? Just say you started to get violent and curse me out, then I gave you water. What I just did was reinforce your angry response. You learned that yelling got you the water. If I ignored you until you were quiet before I gave you the water, you would have learned that asking nicely got you the water and not yelling. So I make a choice as to whether or not I want to reinforce you asking nicely or reinforce your angry response. And Greg, this happens every day in real life. We all behave to get the things we value.

So somewhere in the beginning O maybe gave a few yells and you were worried about your son and wife, so you went to him. He learned that all he had to do to get your attention was yell. Now one day you decide that you are not going to let him get the better of you, so you let him yell for 15 minutes but then you lose your cool and go and tell him to be quiet. Now you have just reinforced 15 minutes of screaming and then it is shaped into longer and longer sessions until you have reinforced incessant yelling/screaming. So this is not O's fault. It is human error and it happens all the time in parrot homes because people don't understand behaviour.

Now one day you decide that you are not going to let him get the better of you, so you let him yell for 15 minutes but then you lose your cool and go and tell him to be quiet. Now you have just reinforced 15 minutes of screaming and then it is shaped into longer and longer sessions until you have reinforced incessant yelling/screaming. So this is not O's fault. It is human error and it happens all the time in parrot homes because people don't understand behaviour.

Have you not heard back from anyone?

Now did this make any sense?

Of course it makes sense, and that is exactly what happens...but the real problem is that O screams even when out of the cage; even if you are within eye sight; sometimes when he is out and you are standing right there in front of him...

I lost the most useful of tools when he became hormonal...the shoulder...he is most comfortable there and wants it...but I am too uncertain of his behavior, having had 3 displays of aggression so far...I think he is starting to calm down...

I acknowledge that I am probably more to blame than O...

No one has contacted me...I have exchaned information with a few people and sent out follow ups today...

This is because the subject never knows when he will be reinforced, so he keeps trying. Sometimes behavior that has had inconsistent reinforcement is never completely extinguished because of spontaneous recovery where the subject tries the behavior after a long absence of undesired behavior.

Therefore, you are better off reinforcing it every time and stopping "cold turkey" than to be spasmodic about it.

The bottom line is; you're better off continuing to reinforce the behavior consistently until you're able to totally commit to extinguishing it. Then NEVER GIVE IN. Good Luck.

Beautiful poem, made me cry like a big baby, wish I was able to take in parrots that need good homes and love because they would have it here. But unfortantly I'm unable to. I would never could never give up Tikie, no matter how much we disagree on some things.

What a nice poem, it made my heartache for all the birds and other animals that we see in shelters or abandoned, abused and tossed around like they were a just a useless peace of clutter. When people get tired of having to care for any animal or the pet doesn't turn out the way they had hoped,they don't think twice about just placing and ad or leaving it at a shelter.

We just rescued a M2 a few weeks ago, the guy that we got him from had him in a basement and when we went to visit the first time, the guy had to turn on the light, so Zazu was left in the dark with a space heater plugged in next to her cage. But I knew that I was not leaving there with out this baby and the thing that really got me was he said he wanted the "Baretta" bird but it was not hand tame so he took this one instead.

This really made me cry. this is why I brought Houdini home with me because I was determined that he would know nothing but love as long as I'm alive. And my niece will make a wonderful companion for him when I'm no longer able...if he'll have her lol